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Child abuse

China childcare abuse claims shock the nation

Claims a Beijing nursery gave injections and drugs to toddlers have prompted a media storm and protests by parents. Police are investigating, and daycare chain operator RYB says it has suspended three teachers.

China's official Xinhua news agency joined a social media storm Friday, saying police were checking allegations that pre-school children had been "reportedly sexually molested, pierced by needles and given unidentified pills."

Reacting to the latest in a series of scandals over alleged supervisory lapses in China's booming private childcare sector, the education ministry urged officials nationwide to "take warning from these types of incidents."

RYB Education apologized for the "serious anxiety this matter has brought to parents and society," saying the kindergarten's principal had asserted that the center was the victim of a frame-up by an "individual."

Three teachers had been suspended, said RYB, part of a fast-growing sector fulfilling a growing middle class' parental wish for high-end educational services.

It provides 1,300 daycare centers — some under franchise — and nearly 500 kindergartens in 300 Chinese cities, according to its website.